This invention relates to a method for maintaining clean the return springs in a shed-forming apparatus in a weaving machine. The warp threads guided in healds between an upper shed position and a lower shed position are moved back and forth and at each heald a tension spring exerts a pulling force for resetting the healds into the lower shed position. The return springs are secured to a lowering floor or to lowering bars of a lowering frame.
Well-known shed-forming apparatuses are, among others, the so-called Jacquard machines where two hooks are connected to one another by a common block-and-tackle. The hooks may be coupled, for example, by magnetic means, to two continuously oppositely moved bars, whereby the heald suspended on the block-and-tackle executes, together with the warp thread, a controlled vertical motion between an upper shed position and a lower shed position. Each heald is connected to a tension spring which resets the heald into the lower shed position. The tension springs are secured to the lowering floor or to the lowering bars of a lowering frame.
A significant problem involved in machines of the above-outlined type is a dust deposition and lint formation on the return springs which rapidly leads to operational disturbances and requires long down periods of the machine for performing maintenance work.